CURRENT ROOT EMPLOYEES - Please apply using the career page in Workday. This career site is for external applicants only.
The Opportunity
We believe that a disruptive insurance company must have a principled quantitative framework at its foundation. At Root, we are committed to the rigorous development and effective deployment of modern statistical machine learning methods to problems in the insurance industry.
As the Staff Data Scientist (DS) within Root’s Pricing DS team, you will lead deep research initiatives that deliver paradigm-shifting improvements to our risk segmentation and pricing strategy. You will shape and prioritize the team’s experimentation roadmap while providing domain-wide thought leadership on pricing model innovation, measurement, and best practices. You will proactively identify new opportunities for expansion and optimization, shepherding solutions from R&D into production. While the role is IC-focused, you will directly manage one experienced lead data scientist who will support these efforts.
This role demands an ownership mentality, with the ability to independently drive work forward, mentor junior team members, and collaborate on large-scale projects. In this role, you will regularly engage with members of cross-functional departments as well as the executive team. Strong communication skills will be an important asset. Join us to push traditional boundaries and set the future direction for pricing models in the industry.
Root is a “work where it works best” company, meaning we will support you working in whatever location that works best for you across the US. We will continue to have our headquarters in Columbus to give more flexibility and more choice about how we live and work.
Salary Range: $168,000 - $210,000 (Bonus and LTI eligible)
How You Will Make an Impact
- Lead innovation in pricing models, pushing traditional boundaries and setting new industry standards.
- Collaborate closely with Product, Actuarial, State Product Management, and Engineering teams to ensure alignment and synergy across departments.
- Set strategic direction of the pricing team by shaping and prioritizing the experimentation roadmap.
- Proactively identify and explore new opportunities for pricing model expansion and optimization, particularly in the context of entering new markets.
- Lead vendor explorations and deep research into the best use of new and existing data at the most granular level
- Mentor and up-skill more junior team members, fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented team culture.
- Manage a lead data scientist.
- Lead large-scale data science projects, ensuring the application of best practices in version control and project management.
What You Will Need to Succeed
- Advanced degree in a quantitative discipline (Master’s or PhD preferred) and 8+ years of experience applying advanced quantitative techniques in the insurance industry.
- Proven experience in leading the development and deployment of pricing models, with a focus on automation and innovation.
- Deep expertise in R or Python, with the ability to independently query, manipulate, and model data.
- Experience with advanced modeling techniques — like H2O or XGBoost — is a strong plus.
- Technical proficiency in version control systems such as Git, and experience collaborating on large-scale projects with multiple contributors.
- Experience with AWS (or analogous) utilities, such as EC2, SageMaker, and Redshift, for scalable data processing and storage.
- Excellent business intelligence and visualization skills, with the ability to effectively communicate insights and technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Ownership mentality, with a demonstrated ability to take initiative, drive work forward, and mentor others.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and influence strategic decisions.
- Prior management experience is a plus, but not required.
Don’t meet every single requirement?
Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Root, Inc., we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway!
Join us
At Root, we judge people based on the merit of their work, not who they are. If you are passionate about what this role entails and solving real problems, we encourage you to apply. We want to learn about you and what you can add to our team.
Who we are
We’re harnessing the power of technology to revolutionize insurance. Using machine learning and mobile telematic platforms, we’ve built one of the most innovative FinTech companies in the world. And we’re just getting started.
What draws people to Root
Our success is in large part due to our unwavering standards in hiring. We recognize that our products are only as good as the people building and promoting them. We want individuals who find solutions by going through the cycle of ideation to implementation with curiosity, rigor, and an analytical lens. Ask anyone who works here and you’ll hear similar reasons for why they joined:
Autonomy—for assertive self-starters, the opportunities to contribute are limitless.
Impact—by challenging the way it’s always been done, we solve problems that have a big impact on our business.
Collaboration—we encourage rich discussion and civil debate at every turn.
People—we are inspired by the collection of crazy-smart people around us.
Top Skills
What We Do
At Root, we’re doing things differently. We’re reimagining the services people need so that they serve them better. And we’re doing it by using data, technology, and rapid innovation to create products and experiences that are fair, easy, personal, and affordable.
We’ve partnered with Carvana in a partnership that brings an industry-leading, seamless insurance process to the online car buying experience.
The launch of Carvana Insurance Built with Root delivers an elevated customer experience made possible through a deep integration that pre-fills key customer information so that a customer can skip data entry and jump directly to evaluating quotes and customizing coverage. This fully embedded product experience—from quote to payment—happens entirely within the Carvana checkout process. Teams from both Carvana and Root have worked for months to build this bold technology platform. An early iteration involved 24 screens in the customer experience flow—that experience is now just three straightforward steps.
Why Work With Us
Our success is because of the hard work, ingenuity, and exceptional performance of our team. People come to Root because they know they can make an impact in their role, the company, and the industry. We’re passionate and curious self-starters, building a top-notch customer experience. Sound like something you’d like to be a part of?
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